New Superman Movie: Michael Shannon Discusses His 'Zod' Wardrobe

11.02.11 by BJSprecher

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Because he's been talking with reporters about his new movie Take Shelter and his critically acclaimed HBO series Boardwalk Empire, Michael Shannon has been the greatest source of new information about director Zack Snyder's Superman franchise reboot. In his latest interview, Shannon explained to EW that the evil Kryptonian General Zod will have two costumes in the movie, though he's not quite sure what one of them will look like (except that it won't be "paisley").

The first image of Shannon to leak from the Man of Steel set showed him suited up in a motion-capture suit, which immediately set off alarms in the fan community because of fears that Zod might be going the route of Ryan Reynolds' all-CGI super-costume in Green Lantern. However, subsequent "spy" pics of Shannon showed him wearing a tight black costume reminiscent of Cavill's super-suit and more in line with the costume seen on Antje Traue, who plays Zod's man-hating Kryptonian sidekick, Faora. Shannon confirmed to EW that Zod will be wear multiple costumes and revealed that the mo-cap costume will be something "very big."

There’s two different modes. There’s something that I have to wear a motion-capture suit for, because if I actually wore it, I wouldn’t be able to move. It’s a very big…thing. I actually don’t know what it’s going to look like, I just know that it’s very cumbersome. There’s another thing that I wear that’s an actual costume. It’s pretty simple. There’s no paisley or anything.

Doesn't seem like much of a reveal to you? Well, if you've ever read the awesome Superman comic book story arc "For Tomorrow" by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Jim Lee, then you might remember that Zod wore some badass battle armor when he fought Superman and that the black, spiked battle armor looked pretty similar to what Traue was seen wearing as Faora.

What else has Shannon revealed about Man of Steel? For starters, Zod will not only battle Superman (Henry Cavill) but also duke it out with Superman's biological father, Jor-El (Russell Crowe), on Krypton. We can also expect to see a new take on the mysterious Kryptonian prison dimension known as The Phantom Zone.

Man of Steel was written by David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight) from a story he conceived with producer Christopher Nolan (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises). The plot is still under wraps, but we've learned that Snyder plans on showing a Clark Kent (Cavill) who is on something of a "vision quest" to figure out how he fits into the world and what to do with his amazing abilities. The cast includes Amy Adams as Lois Lane; Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Superman's adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent; Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet; and Ayelet Zurer as Superman's Kryptonian mother, Lara Lor-Van.